In a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, a base station schedules a terminal device to send uplink data on an unlicensed spectrum resource. The base station sends scheduling information such as resource allocation information or a modulation and coding scheme to the terminal by using a control channel, so that the terminal device receives downlink data or sends uplink data after detecting the scheduling information carried on the control channel. When the terminal device sends data, a resource block (RB) is used as a resource scheduling unit for scheduling and allocation. When the base station allocates a channel resource to the terminal device, generally, the base station allocates one RB or a plurality of consecutive RBs in frequency domain to one UE, or allocates two nonconsecutive RB sets in frequency domain to one UE. Each RB set includes one RB or a plurality of consecutive RBs in frequency domain. However, when the terminal device sends data on the unlicensed spectrum resource, a limiting condition specified for an unlicensed spectrum needs to be satisfied: transmit power of the terminal device within each megahertz (MHz) cannot exceed 10 decibel-milliwatt (dBm for short) or 7 dBm. Therefore, in an existing resource allocation manner, total transmit power of the terminal device is limited by a quantity of consecutive RBs in frequency domain that are allocated to the terminal device, leading to smaller coverage of the unlicensed spectrum.
In an existing mechanism, to satisfy the foregoing limiting condition and ensure that the coverage of unlicensed spectrum does not become smaller, the base station allocates at least two nonconsecutive resource block sets within an uplink carrier bandwidth to the terminal device, so that when the terminal device can send uplink data by using each resource block set, maximum transmit power under the foregoing limiting condition can be achieved to some extent, and the coverage of the unlicensed spectrum is extended.
However, when a resource is indicated to the terminal device, according to current regulations on the unlicensed spectrum, the base station does not support indication of specific resource information of nonconsecutive resource block sets to the terminal device. The base station can indicate only information about a resource block in a first resource set within a bandwidth to the terminal device, and allocate by default interlaced resource blocks that belong to a same row as the resource block to the terminal device. In addition, the conventional art is inapplicable to frequency division multiplexing of an uplink resource in the unlicensed spectrum between a plurality of terminal devices.